10 Best Video Game Theme Songs

Here is our list of the 10 best video game theme songs that you probably hummed on your way to work.

Music is an often overlooked ingredient in video games. The hype is always about the graphics or story or multiplayer. But, music is the glue that binds the game together. It is what gives the game emotional weight and makes moments memorable. Without it, we’d have nothing to hum quietly to ourselves while swapping game discs in our system. Without theme songs, games would be boring.

Below you’ll find the 10 best video game theme songs:

10. Uncharted

From the moment you slip that disc into your PS3, you’re treated to a fantastic arrangement of horns and strings to get your blood pumped for adventure. It is that low brass fanfare that makes you excited for the possibilities that each loading screen holds. From the first note, you know you’ll be travelling to some far off land full of treasure and, quite possibly, a pissed off warlord in search of a mystical artifact.

9. Shadow of the Colossus

Subtlety is the middle name of this game. Each pixel is placed deliberately and the musical notes are no exception either. Along with the visuals, the music is there to enhance the emotion you feel as you slay another one of those beautiful anthropomorphic mountains. The music makes them feel larger and you feel that much smaller.

8. Skyrim

The chorus of this song is probably sung in a mead hall by a bunch of drunken hairy chested Nords. It is that awesome.

7. MegaMan II

Of the classic video games on our list of the 10 best video game theme songs, Megaman II has one of the best themes. Like Megaman himself, it fuses the organic and mechanical. Each sound from your 8-bit system pumps through your veins as you keep running to the right. It got you excited to jump and shoot things. It was simply the icing on the cake of an already fantastic game.

6. Sonic the Hedgehog

If there’s a better theme song to streak our way through the first few levels of Sonic the Hedgehog, we haven’t found it. From the menu screen to the gameplay, this theme song is just as memorable as the first time you charged up and blasted sonic through some double loops and straight into a spike pit. Sure, each of the game's many characters has their own theme, but none come close to the masterpiece of game music that is Sonic's theme.

5. Katamari Damacy

4. Mortal Kombat

Never has a line from a video game theme been drunkenly screamed more often than “MORTAL KOMBAT!!!” The theme song was just as harsh as the ground-breakingly violent fighting. It is one of those theme songs that conjures waves of nostalgia for late nights with snack food and friends. For that, it sits happily near the top of our list of the 10 Best Video Game Theme Songs.

3. Tetris

Everytime we hear this song we’re convinced colorful bricks will start falling from the sky and dive for cover. This anxiety inducing theme song is only beaten on the nerve wracking scale by the Jaws theme. If it wasn’t for that song, we’d be able to play with LEGO’s without getting anxiety attacks.

2. Super Mario Brothers

Quite possibly the most famous theme song in video games history, the theme for Super Mario Brothers is an aural legend. From the first few notes, you know you’re in for a Mario game full of platforming fun. It is a song you can’t help but whistle to yourself while driving to work. It brings back memories of your fist console and that huge cathode-ray boob tube. It is forever in the halls of, not only great video game music, but truly great music from any medium. The nostalgia factor alone is enough to land it at the number two spot on our list of the 10 Best Video Game Theme Songs.

1. The Legend of Zelda

In the songbook of great video game theme songs, one game reigns supreme. The Legend of Zelda theme has survived the ages and numerous iterations. This memorable march burrows its way into your soul. It wraps itself around your heart and fills you with the thirst for high adventure. It is a song that sends satisfying chills down your spine as memories of Zelda games past cascade in front of your mind’s eye. Everytime you hear it, you can’t help but hold your head up a little higher.

There you have it, the 10 best video game theme songs. Are there any other ones you’d like to share? Drop your suggestions down in the comments section below.